I showed her the plate details from my phone.
Mia’s jaw was twitching, and I knew it would be a problem that I didn’t tell her beforehand.
“Well, there it is, and that’s the best I can do for now,” I bit back with a glib reaction.
“I’m going to take this out to the team and have them run it through the system. Be right back.” She closed the door behind her.
Mia instantly lashed out, “Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this? I asked you yesterday if there was anything you needed to tell me,” she demanded.
“I’m sorry, my bad. I forgot to mention it.” It came out in an obnoxious way, and if I was on the receiving end I would have told me where to go.
“My bad? How can I represent you correctly as a club if you withhold key information?” she fumed.
I wanted to tell her how cute she was with that little snarl on her top lip. I kept it to myself, as it was probably not the best time to patronize her. “Oops? Truth is, I probably thought I told you already and it slipped my mind.”
She rolled her eyes and flipped her silky brown hair over her shoulder.
Detective Shepherd re-opened the door and sat back down. “Now, we got that out of the way. Is there anything else you can think of? I will be interviewing the rest of the club throughout the day, and if I find any discrepancies in your stories, we are going to be on the Rebel Saints’ asses,” she warned with a menacing stare.
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied with confidence.
She pressed the button on the tape recorder.
With Mia on deck, I wasn’t afraid of the police. I knew she would come around after a while.
“Do you sell drugs at the club? Answer truthfully, yes or no?” Detective Shepherd tried a new angle.
“No, we don’t. We own the bar at the Red Stone Casino, we own Wheelz. We are a legit club with legitimate business. We are not in the drug trade.”
“What evidence do you have to link the club to being distributors of drugs?” Mia enquired.
“None so far. We are obviously working on the preliminaries first,” Detective Shepherd replied.
“Your first answer. That’s the correct one. There is no evidence.” Her emerald beauties pierced straight through Detective Shepherd’s eyes, not afraid. Mia Copeland would make a hell of an adversary.
I wanted to reach for Mia’s face and kiss her. She was one tough cookie. After what seemed to be another full-on session of questioning, I got to leave the hellhole that was the Holbeck police station.
All of this back and forth with the Holbeck police department was something I feared would set the club on the back foot. We couldn’t catch a break. Now I was 100% convinced the Devil Riders had something to do with trying to bring the Rebel Saints to their knees.
Mia stepped outside with me.
The usual mugginess hung in the air.
“Mia. That tape saved us. Again, I’m sorry about the other thing.”
Her body posture with her arms crossed over her chest showed she was closed off. “Let me know next time, it will make things easier for you,” she said anxiously. Her eyes were darting around the premises, and she was looking scattered and nervous.
“Mia, did I do something that’s put you off? Because things don’t seem the same between us…” My voice trailed off as she looked past me.
“No. Bear is coming in. He’s behind you now. I’m mentally preparing for the questioning. We’re all good.”
The pretend smile floating over her face told me otherwise. “You don’t seem so sure.” The tension between us made me uneasy, and I didn’t have the faintest idea of how to reach her. It was frustrating the hell out of me.
Bear came up behind us, looking disheveled. “Hey, Numbers. How did it go?”
“All good man, you’ll be fine,” I replied, but my eyes were fixated on Mia. “Good luck.”
Her back was already turned as she looked over her shoulder one last time, waiting for Bear to go in with her.
“Thanks, Numbers,” Bear said. “Catch you at the club.”